


Autocorrect

by AngelOfDeath10



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Prompt Fic, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24827146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelOfDeath10/pseuds/AngelOfDeath10
Summary: We've all been there, someone's got your phone and a friend sends you something embarrassing. But usually said embarrassment is not on the level of exposing your years' long crush to the object of your desire. Who else but Sakura would have that kind of luck?
Relationships: Gaara/Haruno Sakura
Comments: 15
Kudos: 85





	Autocorrect

**Author's Note:**

> From a loose prompt in the GaaSaku discord. It stomped on my brain for a while. Just a fun little quickie.
> 
> Disclaimer: We never get what we want in canon. Naruto's characters don't belong to me but I wish I could smoosh these two together like dolls just the same.

When Naruto texted her the picture while she fanned herself with a folded up piece of paper in AP Calc, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to lean over to where Gaara was resting his head on his desk and force him to look at it.

"Hey, I didn't even know Naruto had a picture like this of you two,"

Uncurving his spine slowly, tired eyes blinking against the early afternoon light assaulting them in their mutual last class of the day, Gaara accepted the phone with a nearly inaudible sigh. Sakura hadn't had that picture saved to her own phone, blast from the past that it was, so it had been a shock to think about how much Gaara had changed from freshman to senior year.

The scrawny kid in that photo with his arms crossed as a cheesing Naruto snapped a selfie with him only shared a passing resemblance with the muscular teen Gaara had become. Short and angry had been replaced with tall and permanently exhausted. No more eyeliner. No more all black clothing. Yet the chipping black nail polish remained so maybe the angry kid he had been hadn't been totally abandoned.

"You hate it." Sakura supplied as Gaara seemed to stare at the picture with an intensity that he normally didn't display for anything beyond chasing down a ball on the soccer field. "I won't be able to get Naruto to delete it, but I can force him to stop sharing it." She made a fist and tried to catch his eye with her reassuring smile before he handed back her phone and sat up the rest of the way to stretch out limbs stiff from sitting in small uncomfortable desks all day.

The unstructured time she had been enjoying after finishing their problem sets was about to come to an end and extracurriculars were calling, so Sakura started to pack up her books as the end of the day announcements started up over the school-wide intercom. Gaara was already standing up, arching his back with a crack and giving all the lucky girls and boys in the room a glimpse of toned stomach. Soccer had treated him well over the years, and Sakura wasn't impervious even though she exerted iron control to appear to be.

"Practice today?"

"Yeah," Gaara wouldn't meet her eyes when he talked, but at least they were on good enough terms that he would respond to her queries at all. He pulled his own phone out of his book bag and glanced down with a frown. "Meet me after practice by my car."

Not entirely sure what that meant, but feeling her heart start to pound all the same she responded with the precise and articulate, "What?" before Gaara strode out of the room with quick purposeful steps. Sakura was left with sweaty palms and a stupid expression on her face, knowing she needed to get to her locker to unload her stuff before she went to the science room for robotics but finding her legs uncooperative.

This required a text to Ino, right now. People had mostly filtered out of the room as the math teacher gathered up papers and chatted with students who still had questions, but it wasn't entirely an empty room when Sakura gave a horrified shriek. She was shaking, she knew, but if it was rage or fear she couldn't pinpoint. The single unread message from Ino in her texts had simply read: _omfg just jump Gaara's fucking bone so I can stop hearing how thirsty you are._ It must have arrived to her phone shortly after she had sent Ino the picture Naruto had sent her, but since she hadn't seen the notification with the text excerpt pop up on her screen that meant that….

_I'm going to murder you in your sleep, pig! Come to the science room today or I will drag you out of the art room by your ponytail!_

It was only a slight exaggeration. Sakura was angry enough to do something drastic, but most of that anger was directed inward in the form of soul crushing embarrassment. Smoothing clammy palms down her just barely dress code length skirt, Sakura picked up her bag and stomped out of the room while pointedly ignoring the stares of mildly curious classmates. Sakura Haruno in a mood wasn't exactly an unfamiliar sight.

*  
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*  
*

"But seriously, you and your big fucking mouth, Ino," Sakura was hiding her frustration at herself behind anger at Ino. It wasn't very nice of her, but the panic that was lodged in her soul wasn't allowing her to think clearly.

Luckily, long years of friendship had made Ino impervious to this particular brand of bitchiness. "It's still not my fault you handed over your phone to the guy you've been crushing on for the last three years. Which still isn't a good look for you, by the way."

Sakura wished she could smack Ino with the soldering iron she was currently using to put finishing touches on the robot that needed to be rebuilt after a makeshift 'battle' with Shino's two weeks ago. It hadn't resulted in a win for either of them since Shino's got stuck in a loop that basically locked their little robots in a death clench while armatures had smacked one another helplessly. Shino was quietly debugging his code in a corner of the science room with headphones on so Sakura wasn't afraid of him hearing anything. The rest of the robotics team was using the fine spring weather as an excuse to fool around outside under the excuse of testing their constructions.

"It has not been three years." Sakura grumbled, eyeing her sloppy efforts and deciding her mood was not conductive to the needed precision for today's activity.

"Oh, excuse me, but it easily has been even if you only realized it a year and a half ago." Ino flicked her long blond hair to the side and got that glint in her eye that Sakura knew the rest of the debate team dreaded. "For instance, sophomore year, honors English, you and Gaara were paired up for a project in which he came to your house to plan it out and you actually cleaned your room before he got there."

"That's just common courtesy."

"He never saw your room, and you knew he wouldn't because your precious father wasn't about to let his fifteen-year-old have a strange boy that close to your panties."

They had discussed this. So what if she had been self-conscious around him even when he was a gangly mess of limbs of self-loathing? Sakura had thought that his commitment to his look was brave in a way that had eventually inspired her to actually change her own aesthetic in small ways.

Ino ticked up another finger, carefully glossed and plumped lips practically sneering with victory already. "Exhibit B, junior year and Sasuke goes with Hinata to the homecoming dance and you do not fall into a week long depression. In fact, when we go as a group without them you spend the majority of the time sitting on the sidelines talking to Gaara. You proceeded to talk about how fun that dance was for months…"

"This is slander and I don't have to take it from you."

"You want to take it from Gaara, though." Ino thought that turn was pretty clever from the brittle smile she cracked at Sakura's deepening full body flush.

And damn it all, she was right, which was the most galling part of talking to Ino typically. Sakura couldn't have said what had drawn her at first, or what increasingly brought her eyes and her emotions in the direction of the now stoic boy who was mostly Naruto's friend if truth be told. Some nasty hipster part of her wanted to snap at the girls these days who drooled after the star goalie and ASB President who had transformed from delinquent to ivy league bound model student in the four years they had been acquainted. In a way, she missed his angry outbursts of yesteryear because she had seen a kindred spirit in rage.

Ino tugged on one of Sakura's short pink strands and the pain brought her back to the present.

"I think it's rather interesting that as soon as he finds out you want his body he offers to drive you home. Seems pretty unambiguous to me. Maybe he's ready to give up his v card to you. His fangirls are going to die of jealousy."

"You're gross, and I don't think that's what it's about." Sakura was so sure that's what it was about that she could feel the tremors of adrenaline rocking her body even now over an hour later.

There was a ping from Ino's phone and she glanced down with a perfectly groomed eyebrow and then back at Sakura with a real look of sorrow. "Sai's done." Normally, this was way they parted ways in the afternoon since Sai and Ino traded off giving one another rides home. "I can tell him this is an emergency and we can continue to plan your strategy for this afternoon. I'm sure I can bum a ride from someone on the cheer squad."

"No, it's fine, you can text me if you think of anything else with that evil brain of yours. Unless you can magically turn back time?"

With a laugh, Ino pushed at Sakura's shoulder and picked up her bag before she rushed out the door as fast as her fashionable heeled boots could take her. Sai would wait for five minutes in the parking lot and rarely a second longer. His near crippling compulsive behaviors meant if he waited much longer without something constructive to occupy him he'd be an anxious mess. Ino wasn't that brand of mean.

Shino tapped away at the computer in the corner and Sakura started to clean up her area rather than pretend like she'd get any more work done today. Might as well go wait and stew in the parking lot and melt into a puddle of misery in some sunshine.

*  
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*  
*

Gaara emerged a few minutes after soccer practice ended with a duffle slung over one shoulder and his hair slicked back from his quick shower. As always there was an aura around him that seemed to warn others away as his teammates streamed out but didn't approach him. Like most people, they had learned that unless you had some specific purpose behind a social activity you were more likely to be regarded with an unnerving stare and silence than common banalities from Gaara. Sakura just ignored those silences when they were together and learned to ask questions that couldn't be answered with a mere yes or no.

He stopped a socially appropriate distance from Sakura, hair dripping onto his plain white t-shirt and creating a trail that seemed to invite her eyes to stray lower and she knew she had gone pale and weird when his eyes narrowed.

"Ready to go?"

Anything she said would be a strangled squeak so she just nodded and scrambled up from where she had been laying in the shade of a tree. She dusted grass and leaves from shirt and skirt and wondered why everything she wore had to be tight today. Normally proud of a body that she'd finally grown into despite being a bit more muscular than she figured was on trend, Sakura knew there were girls that would have looked better next to Gaara. Not that he seemed to notice girls. Or boys, for that matter. Until this afternoon, that is.

Sakura easily kept up with his measured strides to the black luxury car with tinted windows that he'd either inherited from his sister Temari when she graduated two years ago, or been gifted a new one by a father that had notoriously never shown his face for any of the Sabaku siblings on campus up to and including graduation.

He tossed his bag in the backseat and climbed in while Sakura stood uncomfortably by the passenger side door and debated internally if maybe it wouldn't be better to just sprint home. She figured she could cover the miles in record time, even in her slippery navy flats.

The door popped open in front of her making her jump back with a yelp, and Sakura was treated to Gaara looking up at her with bedroom eyes, hair starting to slip in his face from his awkward position leaning over the seat to push the door open for her.

"Get in." It was something in between a statement and a question the way his delivery trailed off.

"Yeah, sorry, just spaced out for a minute there. I know I've said it before, but your car is super nice. It must get really good gas mileage."

Gaara gave her a funny look as she climbed in, his eyes snapping down to concentrate on the steering column. "It's electric. No gas involved." His voice sounded a little strange, and Sakura wondered if it was the way she was pulling at her skirt to get a little bit more coverage on her thighs. Had she flashed him on the way in accidentally? She didn't think it would have been a problem since the car was so low. Normally that only happened when Naruto was giving her a ride home when he got out of football and she had to climb up into his truck. Bastard that he was, he would always call out the color and she would always punch him in the arm. Naruto was like the fraternal twin brother she'd never asked for.

Come to think of it….

"I need to tell Naruto that I don't need a ride today, I almost forgot…"

"Don't worry about it." Gaara stopped her with a hand on her arm as she was reaching into her bag. And as she felt his fingers like each digit were branding her skin she realized she could look down into a very clear view of her cleavage that Gaara could also no doubt see and instantaneously surged into perfect posture against the cool leather of the seat. He cleared his throat, and asked in a voice that was more tentative than she had heard come from him before. "I need to know your address for the gps—"

Oh god, they were going to go to her house for this?! If they weren't going to his place, then she'd rather just give it a shot in the backseat of the car. She'd never be able to sneak Gaara in past her parents after all.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. Are you sure we can't go to your house? It would probably be easier to be, uh, discreet."

"My…?" his eyes went wide, Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed a few times in succession. "Sakura, I'm not sure you want to do that—"

After hours on tenterhooks, her anxiety turned to anger. Anger was an old friend. Anger was comforting and righteous. "This was _your idea_ , and I've been dying inside for hours from the uncertainty of it all because you're not exactly forthcoming about stuff like this and now you're chickening out?!" She turned her still unbuckled body towards him as much as the arm rest between them allowed and then poked him in the chest with a mint green painted nail. "We should at least give it a try, since you seemed game for it before you had practice! And now you think I'm the one that doesn't want to do this? Well, you're dead wrong."

Gaara looked vaguely confused and a little alarmed, but even more so when Sakura decided that if nothing else she was going to kiss him to prove how ready she in fact was for something she had only been fantasizing about for years. She planted two hands on the closed armrest and used it as leverage to bring her face closer to his for what she intended to be a quick peck on the lips. Time felt like it was slowing down as their breath mingled and she hesitated.

"Naruto had an extra shift at work tonight, he asked me to take you home."

If Sakura had an emergency stop button, it had just been slammed with force. They were inches away from one another, and Sakura could make out the dark bruises around Gaara's eyes from his chronic insomnia and the slight redness in his whites. There was nothing but honesty and shock in his tone. Sakura had just come on to her replacement ride.

Curling back into the seat quickly, she brought her knees up to her chest and looked out the window as if the nearly empty school parking lot held an answer to her predicament. "I'll get out in a moment. I just need to finish dying." She gave a soft groan and covered her face with her hands. "You didn't even see Ino's text did you. I'm such an idiot. I'm so sorry, you don't know how sorry I am I never wanted to be the kind of person to force themselves on you like those other girls try to do and now I'm no better than—"

"Stop." It was the commanding tone, the one he used when he had to give speeches to the student body. It always sent a delighted thrill down her spine and now was no different, as mortified as she was with herself. Some things were pure instinct. "I misunderstood, but you're not wrong. I'm not forthcoming, and I am cowardly, as you said. But with your permission, I'd like to continue, Sakura."

Looking up, she saw that it was now Gaara leaning over the arm rest but bridging only part of the distance between them. She could push open the door and run, that was one option here and her wounded pride rather liked that. She could decline what he was now offering, which is what her shame favored, and accept the uncomfortable ride home as penance. But the banked flames of her hormones had been waiting years for this and swept away anything else in a furious riptide of hope.

There wasn't any room for tentative between two people that bottled up their feelings the way they did, and it wasn't a kiss so much as a competition between people seemingly set on devouring one another. Sakura was the first to thrust her tongue into Gaara's mouth, but he was the one to bite her lips when she tried to break away to clear her head and get some air. This resembled wrestling more closely than kissing, but Sakura was invigorated knowing that her imagination hadn't really done this moment justice. Placid and controlled was just a veneer, as her secret thoughts had whispered, and he had even had her fooled for a moment there.

With a heated stare, Gaara started up the car without looking away from where Sakura was trying to straighten out her shirt and collect her thoughts. "Do you still want to go to my house?"

If this was going to happen, she might as well come clear about the whole business. "I've wanted that since that time I saw you throw that chair through the lunch room window."

"That was my first suspension."

"It should have been your first expulsion."

Gaara's smile was feral, so unlike the him that stalked the hallways as a model senior now that Sakura wasn't sure she really knew him for a flash. "It wouldn't have been my first expulsion."

Frissons of anticipation made Sakura jumpy, and if Gaara was taking turns too quickly or not exactly obeying the speed limit she wasn't going to complain. If he got pulled over it wasn't like he couldn't afford the ticket, but she was decently sure even a cop wasn't going to slow him down right now.


End file.
